Streets of Lhasa in the 1920s: Charles Bell's Tibetan Observations
Side view of the Potala Palace: Charles Bell, who learned Tibetan, was born in Calcutta on October 31, 1870. He came from a family of six children, with his father working as a civil servant. His education took place at Winchester School, New College, Oxford, and Oxford University. In 1891, Bell entered the civil service and worked for nine years across Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa. During that time, he caught malaria, which led to his transfer to Darjeeling in 1900; the disease remained his most significant health issue for the rest of his life. In Darjeeling, he experienced Himalayan culture for the first time, became intensely fascinated by it, and promptly began studying Tibetan. His first publication, *Manual of Colloquial Tibetan*, came out in 1905 and was made up of a grammar section and a dictionary. Bell also had a notable interest in photography.
During his stay in Tibet, Bell captured numerous photographs documenting everyday Tibetan life, which significantly contributed to research on Tibetan culture. Over the years that followed, his engagement with matters concerning Tibet and the surrounding regions deepened. Between 1904 and 1905, he oversaw the administration of the Chumbi Valley. Prior to 1908, he additionally held the position of Trade Agent for Sikkim, Bhutan, and Lhasa, Tibet, China.
In 1920, London sent Bell to Lhasa as a special envoy, making him the first British diplomatic representative to enter the city—although a handful of Italian missionaries had arrived more than two centuries before. He reached Lhasa on November 17th and stayed for close to a year. Prior to that, in 1918, Bell had stepped down from his post for health reasons and spent two years in the Darjeeling area, devoting himself to Tibetan studies. He was known locally as the "Tibet Expert.
Bell was granted an informal reception by the 13th Dalai Lama. They sat together at a small table in a private room, without attendants, in a manner that was warmly personal. The townspeople of Lhasa regarded this as an exceptional honor, for His Holiness normally met visitors only from his throne, a rule that applied even to the highest officials.
In 1934, Bell made another journey to Tibet, this time with his wife Cassie. But he could not reunite with his old friend, because His Holiness had passed away in December 1933. Earlier, upon returning in 1921, Bell had formally left the civil service and dedicated himself exclusively to Tibetan cultural studies, publishing several works on Tibetan history and culture, among them Tibet: Past & Present (1920) and The People of Tibet (1928).
Sir Charles Bell, who was Tibetanized, stands among the most influential British officers in Tibet. He died on March 8, 1945, in Canada, and was buried at Memorial Garden in Oakridge, Vancouver Island. His biography *Portrait of the Dalai Lama*, written for a close friend, appeared posthumously in 1946; the manuscript had been completed only days before his death. In the years that followed, Bell kept traveling through Central Asia, visiting Mongolia, Manchuria, Siberia, and beyond.
A Tibetan official once remarked: "When a European stays with us, I feel he is European, And we are Tibetans." That deep respect stemmed from his full engagement with Tibetan culture and language, which led him to say: "I have become largely Tibetanized." His 1920 trip to Lhasa opened the door for later British officials to enter the region.
Bell was sent to Darjeeling in 1900 to begin studying Tibetan. In 1920, he led a diplomatic mission to Lhasa, spending a year there and photographing Tibetan life extensively. He departed the civil service in 1921 to research and write about Tibet, and received a knighthood in 1922. Among his published works on Tibetan culture and history are *Tibet: Past & Present* (1920) and *The People of Tibet* (1928), among others. "But when Bell stays with us, I feel we are all Tibetans." “when Bell stays with us, I feel we are all Tibetans.”